Of anyone I know in the fansubbing scene, I think you care the most about download counts, so I wouldn’t go around throwing stones. The whole Daiz manifesto thing is retarded, but TT sucks and all the torrents on there redirect to Nyaa anyway.

I don’t get why you’re against Nyaa so much, Nyaa and Tosho and pretty much the same thing, Nyaa just looks nicer and Tosho directs to Nyaa or somewhere else half of the time, if Tosho happened to go down there’s literally nothing that you could do about it so I don’t see how Nyaa is the lesser one because everything is gonne when it goes down.

So you’re one of those people who will settle for a worst product because you don’t like the people who have the best one? Eventhough it doesn’t really matter to you since you’re not paying anything to them or getting hurt/being affected by it in any way, I don’t like saying it but if you don’t like it you can leave, but don’t come with the “hey guys, what about them Toshos?” bullshit everytime. I see your point if you mean it’s bad that they have a bunch of websites all in the same server just asking to get DDoS’d but Tosho is not a better website because it doesn’t have colors.
All I’ve been seeing from you lately is “they’re biased because they think their work is better than mine” but I may just be overlooking this, I’m just a leecher anyway, but you’re just as much of a leecher as me, figuratively anyway, if you truly don’t care about download counts then there’s nothing for you to worry about as long as it doesn’t get in the way of your work.

I like Tosho better as a site than nyaa. It allows for better searches, it’s easier on the eyes without all the flashy colors, it’s more neutral in its presentation, has a trending list, hosts all groups – major and minor, doesn’t have any major groups banned, provides magnet links, has less obtrusive ads, and doesn’t have comments from staff members insulting things you or someone else have submitted to it. So no, I don’t think it’s a worse product.
I believe nyaa is a fine product in its own right. It’s as good as something like anirena or piratebay. I think most of its moderators are a joke though.

So did Dattebayo. Typically they would get about 13 million downloads a season. They also would release h.264 in a .avi container.

Your argument really is quite feeble. It’s like arguing that McDonald’s is not a major company in the food business. It doesn’t matter what a subjective few people think of it. It matters how many people are interested in it.

@ItsMe – Download counts are one way to tell if a group is a major player in the fansub scene. If a lot of people download you, you are a major player.

Some people, like Commie, will do anything they can to keep these counts high and do stuff like abandon their principles and release on tosho, release crunchyrips with minimal to no editing, and/or sub shows they really have no interest in.

Some groups, like Dattebayo, will get high download counts and be like “They like us, so we’ll just keep doing what we want”.

Some groups, like CGi, don’t care about download counts and do whatever the hell they want, even if it is something like prioritizing White Album 2 over Monogatari S2 and Railgun S.

You’re so delusional I’m not sure if it’s more amusing or sad. The only time people sub things they’re not interested in is when they get roped into it by someone else who is interested.

>sub shows they really have no interest in.

Are you still mad about Sailor Moon? Because at the very least, Xythar cares about the show. I watch it with him every episode after Commie’s released it. Why would he bother doing that if he didn’t like the show? (Unless he predicted you would call him out on it and is using this alibi just to prove you wrong! omg conspiracy unveiled)

“Delusional” is a word that seems to be pulled out more and more against me. Trust me, I’ve thought for YEARS now whether my beliefs are the product of paranoia created from Jaka forming CoalGuys to sub everything Chihiro did (but faster), or if I was legit about what I was doing. But every time I start to doubt myself, it’s funny how something always happens to justify my thoughts.
For instance:
1. Commie suddenly decides to sub Tales of Vesperia a year after it comes out with a widely approved Chihiro sub.
2. Commie forces brainchild to quit Chihiro.
3. Daiz releases 2 episodes of Kanamemo DVD after the CGi version is released and argued for on bakabt.
4. Commie picks up DokiDoki Precure the year after Chihiro got into the scene of Precure.
5. Commie picks up Nisekoi BDs when there was already an acceptable release using their subs (coldhell), and after it became apparent that CGi would be a major player. Note that they haven’t released anything in months in this series but probably will in like 2 days because I’m writing this.
6. FFF picks up Locodol because “they liked episode 1”, announcing so after Chihiro had released the first episode. Also note that episode 1 was terrible in my honest opinion.

And there are plenty more examples of things that fansub groups have done that could logically be explained as an attempted attack on Chihiro or CGi, or tried to reason away. But how many excuses do you need?

It’s just funny though how things have spiraled out of control. In May, I was totally ready to throw in the towel, admit I was wrong about everything, and make amends. I offered Monogatari to Nyaa only to get it classified in the same vein as Minimkv and Deadfish. Note that I did try to appeal this and discuss it with Nyaa, but he chose to ignore me. But even then I was ready to think I was just being paranoid until I saw that quote from archdeco.

Honestly, if you think that the cartel groups don’t give a crap about the non-cartel groups, you’re kidding yourself.

1. How many years ago was this? And oversubbing happens all the time. Just because you release something and someone else does so as well later does not mean they’re out to get you.
2. That was RHE autism demanding that all Commie devs be exclusive to Commie. Had nothing to do with Chihiro specifically. This has not been the case for some time because people told RHE to fuck off.
3. I have no idea what this is is about, but that just sounds like Daiz being Daiz.
4. God forbid someone pick up a show a year after Chihiro? If you seriously think Commie did this to steal downloads from you, then I don’t even.
5. Commie BDs almost always take forever. It’s not a conspiracy when a group decides to do a BD release of their TV script wtf
6. Liking the first episode of a show is a legit reason to pick it up. I know the people working on it at FFF, and none of them except for archdeco probably really know who you are.

I don’t see a conspiracy here. I just see people doing whatever the hell they want to do, which is something you praised as being A-OK since you do it in CGi.

Also, none of what you said is really relevant to the rest of my previous post.

Look Kristen, I understand how you feel but seriously, Nyaa isn’t stopping anyone from downloading your releases, honestly from how you tell things it seems like they are just a bunch of bullies who laugh at everything you do and release the same shows so people don’t download your release (and that might or might not be true but stop making it look like you’re in a war against Nyaa all by yourself and that everyone is out to get you), you might not care about download counts but it sure looks like you do given how badly you want Nyaa to recognize your work, here is a tip: keep doing what you do and stop caring about wether you get A+ or not, because, trust me on this, they won’t like you more if you keep making yourself look like the victim for everything. The leechers who care about quality know who they should download and it’s not the fact that a torrent is A+ that will change their mind, I imagine that’s the people you care about since you don’t care about download numbers so just keep putting out quality content as you see fit and look away from everything else, you’ll get less grey hairs.

PP, I rarely ever submit anything to Nyaa. I didn’t for years. Monogatari S2 I submitted as an olive branch that got spat on because I thought I was wrong, and Usagi I submitted for more evidence about the Nyaa bias. Do you see my Nisekoi, Usagi 3-6, any Monogatari, Inari, White Album 2, Gundam Unicorn, Ookami-san, Princess Mononoke, Madoka Movie, Porco Rosso, Oreimo S2, or Railgun S on there (All done this year, most which have a legit argument for being the best quality of their respective series)?

Is 5 even a point? Commie doing BDs, oh no! Just the other day you were going on about how Cartel groups never do BDs because “they don’t care about the shows”, and so when one does do a BD it’s to spite you? LOL

Anon, look at the shows Commie does BD of since I stopped playing catchup and started doing regular shows.

Yowamushi Pedal – This one I believe they legitimately like. I never said that cartel groups don’t like any show they do, I said I believe they don’t like many of the shows they do.

Monogatari S2 – They didn’t like Nisemonogatari enough to do the BD, so I see no reason to believe they are doing this because they like it. I could buy that they’re either doing it because at the time they started they were the only group doing it or having plans to do it, or because they thought I was going to do it even though I had dropped it.

Nisekoi – Released months late after coldhell had released a fine version using their subs. Pretty much released as soon as it became obvious that CGi would be a big player in the scene of Nisekoi. Had they released soon after the initial release I could buy that it isn’t a targeted release, but the huge delay makes it super obvious exactly what they were doing.

The problem is that you think in extremist terms. Commie does have shows they enjoy. Free, Bicycle show, Silver spoon, etc. But most of their crap is just done for downloads, and it is really easy to tell based off of the quality of the result compared to something they actually enjoy.

Anonymous, look at what I said at the very start of this comment stack. There is nothing wrong with a group looking for downloads if that is their purpose. More power to them. But, just like crunchyroll, I believe that people doing shows for profit or downloads leads to very bland subs with very little love placed into them, possibly with trolling added. Compared to a similarly skilled group that likes the show, the product will always be worse.

As for me and my care about downloads, let me say this. Actions speak louder than words. I talk about how Nyaa is biased, how most Commie members are bad people, and how groups do stuff against me. But do I ever do anything in response to it? Find me an incident from the past 2 years where something I did was done solely for downloads.

But your releases are almost ALWAYS worse than cartel groups’ releases (with the possible exception of Commie). This is pretty much the case with all non-Cartel groups, bar, DDY (unless it’s an original translation).

That isn’t even the point. What makes you so insufferable is how you put on this attitude that you don’t care about what anyone thinks when clearly you do.

I wonder why, totally not because people just gave up on it all together and found somewhere else to download their anime though, totally, the reason TT is dying is totally because Daiz wanted to kill it.

Animesuki used to be the #1 place to download anime. But when stuff started to get licensed before airing, it became incomplete and people went to tokyotosho.

Tokyotosho was the #1 place to download anime for a long time. But when nyaa started to redirect to their website instead of allowing direct downloads, and anirena + scarywater died, nyaa became more popular.

It was never about the simplistic and easy on the eyes look of Tokyotosho. It was about nyaa making moves to try to increase their traffic and force their ideas on fansubbers.

ETA until egotistical and narcissistic fansubbers think they’re hot shit because some people only use Nyaa or NEED to watch anime as soon as it releases?

Here’s a protip you pompous little shit: there are more sites to download Japanese cartoons than Nyaa and TT. Not to mention that normal people can wait (golly gee, you mean that you don’t have to watch things the minute they release???) until things stabilize or blow over. Get over yourself.

>we do what we want and don’t care about your opinion.
“T-They said my subs suck. T-They didn’t give me A+ on Nyaa. S-Some other group also did what ever they want. Cartel!”
Do you actually listen to yourself, Kristen? Jesus Christ.

He’s not as off his rocker as you think. The points are just sorta predicated upon the past (not that I read much of them, cuz walls of text ain’t my thing). Despite what newfriends like Nevreen are saying, it’s not at all a stretch to think groups would sub things just to piss others off.

Back before the Nyaa circlejerk got so… well, I don’t wanna say pathetic, but let’s call a spade a spade here… group rivalry was reason enough to sub a show. Hell, I remember subbing random episodes of shows and releasing them before other groups just to piss them off (K-On, for example). And yes, series were subbed just so other groups would get less downloads.

Nowadays that ain’t quite the case, but I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that someone would sub a series for reasons other than great and tremendous love for it. And I honestly think you’d have to be pretty fucking retarded to believe otherwise.

Probably one of the reasons of oversubbing, I see. And in a case of two groups subbing an unpopular show for the reason of pissing the other, why would they go to such length? Correct me if I’m wrong, but a group getting less downloads would eventually die since they feel insignificant in the scene. In short, its like killing the other group slowly. My opinion.

You’re coming at this from the perspective of a reasonable person with a life. These are fansubbers we’re talking about. There are entire groups in the annals of fansubbing infamous for spending a bunch of time doing things solely to piss others off. These are people who are already subtitling foreign cartoons for free pretty much just for attention and the sake of their own egos. I don’t know why you’d think petty antics are some improbable speculation rather than just more of the same.

Really, the fact that it seems so pathetic is why it shouldn’t be so hard to believe that there are fansubbers who would do it. Just think back to Commie starting to release that season of PreCure and shitting all over the other group doing it. The amount of time they have to piss away on the most frivolous of endeavors is almost enviable.

If low downloads killed groups, there wouldn’t be any left. To answer your question, there are many reasons why people sub. And yes, one of those reasons is just to piss people off. It’s obviously faded a bit from fansub culture, but it’s not gone.

As for how much time they have… well, there’s a reason you don’t see too many people on the front lines post-college.

That may not be it, but maybe a reason for them to consider quitting. And by pissing off another group, can we assume that it’s a call for challenge? And what are the benefits from it? Or maybe pissing them off for no reason whatsoever that only only a kid will do? I’m new to these fansub drama, so please enlighten me.

Have I submitted them to nyaa outside of making a point?
Have I changed how I do my subs in any way?
Have I stopped subbing something because a cartel group was doing it?

Actions speak louder than words. If I actually cared about anything you said or how anybody judged me, I’d be changing how I do things.
Unlike Commie who willingly runs to Tokyotosho to submit because their beloved nyaa is down even though they swore off of it as a crappy useless tracker.

That’s generally how it works mate. I don’t know of any case that’s not how it works. If you can convince me with a logical argument I’ll say you’re right. I’m neutral and can go either way. Of course, doing so would prove you care even more so if your argument is false/illogical.

Well then, since there is no argument I could say to convince you otherwise since your belief is that if I try to, then I’m wrong, I’ll just say nothing and you can believe whatever the hell you want to.

Don’t think you have any right to accuse anyone of hypocricy anymore after you accused me of not putting in effort and then you couldn’t put in the effort to check to see if you were missing the font on your computer. Or hell, you could have just opened the file in a legit media player and checked it there.

Nah, my belief is that if you can provide a logical argument without fallacies backing up what you say then I can and will believe you. That’s how I go about everything mate. I’ve heard people tell me “if you didn’t care then you wouldn’t have said anything” all the time and I’m merely interested to know if that’s not actually the case. I’m not trying to pick on you mate.

Mmmm. I see your point with #1. As for #2 and your question, I honestly don’t know. I like to think Xy’s a fair man. Arch, however, seems like he has something against you for real. He’s a chill dude from what I’ve seen outside of crymore, but I don’t know if you (and only you. I believe other people could change his opinion on other matters, however) can change his opinion or if he’s willing to change his opinion. By “fair man” I mean I believe if you give solid proof of something Xy can agree with you.

I believe there is at least one more way to show you care about someone’s opinion, though. For the whole “if you didn’t care then you wouldn’t bother bringing it up” thing, I always thought of it as “if you brought it up then it bothered you enough to say something about it.” What do you think about that? I don’t care who’s right or wrong and didn’t really in the first place. I just want to have a civil conversation/discussion.

Also, please do comment on
>For the whole “if you didn’t care then you wouldn’t bother bringing it up” thing, I always thought of it as “if you brought it up then it bothered you enough to say something about it.”

I don’t even know what new inventions of Apple you are talking about. I may have heard about them, but as I didn’t care, I no longer remember. It does not even pass as a thought in my brain, much less am I going to give it as an example or post about it. THIS is what “not caring” looks like.

Once more: do you, Kristen, think that you can change anybody’s opinion with your posts? “Anybody” as in “not only Commie members, ANYBODY”.

What about somewhere else? Because, you know, the word “anybody” actually doesn’t exclude the people who do not post in crymore.

So, if I got what KoolKidsK was saying correctly, and if I am understanding you right, it boils down to the following:
What is your motivation to keep extending this effort to post about stuff you don’t care about? If you don’t care about it, why extend this effort? What is the logic behind it?

Do I really post this stuff anywhere else? I used to post crap on bakabt but that was more about getting the CGi name out there than opinions. And the stuff I post on the CGi website is usually to laugh at you guys rather than change opinions.

I’ve had enough of this, Steve. Your stupidity outshines the fucking Sun. Either be a man and admit when you’re wrong, or chop off your balls and fully commit to being a bitch. Remember, there’s only two ways.

Though, it does make you sound exactly like a troll, and, considering the efforts you put into simply drama, means you are pretty mentally unstable, but oh well. It’s still saner than conspiracy theories.

Yes, I didn’t change most of Kuroko’s lines. She didn’t really swear so I didn’t lower that tonality, and her interactions with Touma were completely different at times. I’d actually have preferred it moreso, at the level of Path’s Railgun S1, but I don’t have the talent of an editor to do that.

But again, to each their own. You like a low-effort BD, enjoy Commie at your own leisure.

Also, my sub was never submitted for A+, though I know what the result would be – herkz would deny it because he knows approving it means removing A+ from his own version. Possibly quoting some anonymous staff member that thinks they understand japanese better than professionals (who used to be praised when they were fansubbers). Because after all, translation is the only aspect of a release that your average Joe cannot talk about with any validity, so it destroys any arguments against.

But no, my Monogatari not getting A+ has never been an issue. I believe it deserves it, nyaa does not, that’s all there is to it. That’s why I didn’t submit it. My Monogatari getting flagged as a remake when less than 5% of the release had anything the same as Commie, classifying it in the same vein as Deadfish and Minimkv has been. I refuse that, so I just don’t submit it there.

The only low-effort BD I’m seeing is yours. If you actually cared about your BDs, you would QC them. If you had QC’d them, you would have caught that the typesetting for your 1080p version was not resampled, but simply copy/pasted into the 1080p script.
On top of that, various colors and sizes were tweaked that not only seem more out-of-place than their original placement, but actually collide with the studio signs.
I completely fail to see how this shows a ‘love for the show’. It’s a mere insult.
That doesn’t show dedication for a show. It shows your staff don’t care about the show. They don’t QC, and they leave projects sitting for years. No RnL. No Nichijou. Nothing. After years. It’s preposterous.

See, here’s the thing. All episodes are QC’d 2, if not 3 times. Nobody finds that to be an issue. Obviously, you are simply a Commie staff member trying to find fault where there is none, so it’s no use debating it.

But there is a difference between effort and quality. Effort means that you put time and dedication into making something the way you want it to look. Monogatari is exactly how I want it to look, and you cannot find another version like it. Nor can you say that anything could have been made better with more time invested into it by the same people.
Quality is how you agree with the look. You don’t like the choice in blur, aiming for more readability at the cost of a slight mismatch? Then that is your opinion.

The lack of care in Commie’s version is pretty obvious. They did what I did years ago – shifted, watch, release. Then give themselves A+ to discourage downloading other versions.

But it’s funny, that when commie does something it’s an evil conspiracy, but when you make a decision it’s the best thing that cannot be question as its to your preferences.
Weird how commie can’t claim the same thing.

But it’s funny you think I’m a commie dev. It just shows more of your desperation to discount anything anyone would say against you. But I’m not ‘out to get you’ or anything as devious as that. All I want is good releases for shows I like. If you fixed any of these issues, v2’d with someone that actually knew how to typeset, most of all my complaints would be gone.
But that would require you actually caring about one of your releases.

Also, thought I’d mention this. Neither Nichijou nor RnL are my projects, and I have no influence on them as I am not the group leader of CGi. So trying to accuse me for a lack of care because of projects that aren’t even mine is silly.

Uh tp7 never “repainted” a gradient afaik. What he did a fair bit of was hand drawing edge masks up in photoshop for debanding, and yes I’ve done this too. It’s bothersome and not something I’d want to do often.

It was available last I checked, but I never fully bought into the “Whiners” name. So even though it’d be a good re-brand if I wanted to go that route, it’s not something I’m particularly interested in.

Wow, not even two weeks after I call out Chihiro for being behind on Sailor Moon, they catch up.

Come to think of it, they released the first episode of the show just four days after Commie picked it up.

Mere coincidence? I think not. My suspicions have been confirmed: Chihiro is subbing Sailor Moon solely to attack and piss off Commie. They called me crazy, but this evidence is clear and irrefutable.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they were conspiring with Doki and Hatsuyuki (who are also subbing Sailor Moon, funny about that) to steal downloads from upstanding groups like Commie and FFF. It all makes sense now. I shall call this conspiracy… the syndicate.

Talk to the typesetter if you wish to discuss it. I did the encode, kara, and splicing files together. You can talk to me about that if you wish, or about the ethics of releasing this or other things I do. Bringing up things I have minimal to no control over is nothing more than trolling.

Yeah, what about it? Don’t like the effect? That’s your problem. Have a problem with the letters? Yeah, I’m not above admitting that SMC is a shitstorm trying to encode, and that was the best I could do. Want to suggest to me how I could improve so I can implement it in other episodes and possibly v2 the past ones? Because I’d love to learn.

Well, isn’t that funny. There is a real actual problem with the screenshot you post, and you gripe about something that again is just your opinion. I think the font matches just fine, thank you very much.

(crappy jpeg quality because I couldn’t be bothered screenshotting it from anything but MPC)

Assuming ep3, all I did was resize CR’s 1080p. They fixed the crappy upscale they did from like, the second episode on. And even in ep1 you can get better quality than that with some simple antialiasing…

People click the color picker, pick a pixels colour and done. The problem lies with compression and what not, to really get a closer colour you need to average a window of pixels. Aegisub does not support doing this. One can use Photoshop to get 3×3, 5×5, 11×11, etc windows with the color picker but to be honest it’s way too much effort. This is not even possible in some cases so it’s really best guess.

That isn’t even taking into account blending modes when the text was added to the video originally, blur, and other things.

It’s not that simple because herkz was using multiple layers to match the effect and they all blend and interact with each other. If you want to try fixing up the styling yourself, feel free to send it to me.

I don’t consider myself the group leader of Chihiro. They want me to be and thrust me on the pedestal all the time, but I would rather be just an encoder. Honestly, if I had the opportunity to join a small group that loves kids shows, like Doremi or something, and just do encoding there (on a regular basis), I would do it in a heartbeat.

This is my project though, so I know I should accept responsibility of the final product. Could the TS have been done better? Probably, had we had the people in the staff to do it. Unfortunately, very few people in the staff want to work on it, so there was no better TSer in staff to do it. That said, I don’t find that TS to be unacceptable either. Little bit of blur and maybe a better font and it could look really good. I just feel that fansubbing standards have recently become so high that anything less than a professional effort is considered unacceptable.

Regardless, I do not feel like this is the appropriate place to throw that crap at me. Xythar was talking about ethics, and I fail to see how subjective opinions of quality have anything to do with ethics.

The hell are you talking about? You posted 2 screenshots. The first one I said wasn’t my fault, then you start posting the ED. I ask you how to improve the encode, and you say “get a better typesetter or learn how to typeset it yourself”. So obviously I conclude that the ED2 subs you don’t like, aka the font I chose to use in my karaoke.

You know what, believe whatever you want. I really have too much work to do today to play with you. I was only responding to Xythar’s comment about ethics, and it really was not the place to comment about your opinion on the quality of the release.

Cartel groups
-[Commie]
-[UTW](basically dead)
-[Underwater] (dead, too)
-[Vivid]
-[FFF]
-[Kaylith] (new member)
-[Asenshi] (while small and completely irrelevant, they have members who are mods on Nyaa, making them Cartel members by default)

Making inroads into the Cartel
-[Anime-Koi]
-[Chyuu]
-[Watashi] (their leader has been doing a lot of work for the Cartel)
-[Femme](Xythar said on ask.fm that their leader probably knows what he’s doing)

Syndicate
-[Chihiro] (leader of the syndicate, duh)
-[Coalgirls]
-[Doki]
-[Hatsuyuki]
-[Coldhell] (probably don’t realise it, but they’ve been spite by Nyaa a couple times and certainly part of the resistance (possibly unwillingly)).
-[Wasurenai] (they still haven’t gotten A+ for Milky Holmes)
-[CMS] (despite many good releases — and the best Nisemonogatari release — they’ve never gotten A+ on Nyaa)

The Others
-[DameDesuYo] (they’ve made some inroads into joining the Cartel, however they’ve also shot themselves in the foot a couple of times, for instance, when they release Hanamonogatari. I wouldn’t consider them “Syndicate” either as they are trying to get on good terms with the Cartel.)
-[Hiryuu] (though some of their members are on good terms with the cartel, they are not part of the cartel nor are they part of the Syndicate, hence “the Others”.)
-[Mezashite] (small group, they’ve recently gotten A+ for one of their major releases, so it could be argued that they’re strengthening their relationship with the Cartel. That said, they are not members (yet)).
-[orz] (only recently got Trusted on Nyaa, they’re too new to make a call on whether they’re part of the Cartel or whether they are Syndicate members (I would advise the Syndicate try and recruit them as they are new, young, and easily radicalized)).
-[Stinx] (dogshit group, they’ll probably be part of the Syndicate in a few months).
-[naisho] (very small group, they basically keep to themselves and don’t get too involved in the fansub drama)
-[Migoto] (Same as Naisho)
-[Doutei] (They probably won’t ever be in the cartel, given kokujin-kun’s relation with D_S and Crymore).
-[EveTaku] (this was a hard call for me to make. Lyger often does kfx for Vivid and plenty of EveTaku’s releases have gotten A+. However, lyger declined mod status on Nyaa, which lead the to infer that he doesn’t want to get too involved in the war between the Cartel and Syndicate)

If I forgot a group, it’s probably because they’re really shit, really irrelevant, really new, or part of The Others.

I should add that the Syndicate should try and recruit Impatience (sometimes goes by ‘&’ and some other name that I forget). They’re a pretty young group, and I think it would be in the Syndicate’s best interest to recruit youngsters to help bolster their movement.

I also forgot to mention HorribleSubs. While not a fansub group, I think they’re important to mention. They provide a lot of the funding which keeps Nyaa running (and of course the Cartel strong). They’re basically the Fezzani behind the scenes — and of course not to be trusted.

arvon2 (&, that subber from /a/) already does stuff for Watakushi. And I’m pretty sure he has been failing tests to get into other groups lately.

How is Stinx close to being syndicate when it’s composed of basically a bunch of cartel staff (have you even looked)? Or Kaylith considered new cartel when it a chunk is ex-EveTaku staff?
How is CMS Syndicate when they are more associated with the ‘Cratel’ (watashi etc) than syndicate groups?
And how does Femme knowing what they’re doing qualify them for cartel? Can’t we just accept that a group lead by the creator of several encoding tools would -probably- know what they’re doing?

1. To be honest, what I said about Stinx was largely a joke. Their subs are just shit, that’s all.

2. Kaylith is considered Cartel because of receiving multiple A+ on Nyaa, having mods in their staff, and the way their leader and a couple other group members act. By which I mean they vehemently defend the Cartel and spread disinformation about the Syndicate.

3. CMS is Syndicate as they represent the never-ending struggle of Syndicate groups (never getting blue despite releasing subs that are pretty okay).

4. As for Watashi’s “leader”, I actually meant their TL. Whoops.

5. Cthuko I would probably consider Cartel, but I guess I’ll wait and see after their revival. Perhaps they’ve changed.

I also want to clarify how I categorize fansub groups:
“Cartel”
Any group that has Nyaa mods on their staff, receives A+ for their shows, and gets preferential treatment by the mods. This, for instance, is when there are two groups subbing a show, a Cartel group and a non-Cartel group, and a Nyaa mod claims “we need to give a group A+ for this show” and of course hands it to the cartel group (whether they’ve done a better job or not). You can look at Rokujouma, Locodol, Blade Dance (actually this has two non-Cartel groups, but the point still stands), Ao Haru Ride, and Akame ga Kill (there are probably others which I can’t remember off the top of my head). All of these shows have a Cartel group and one or more non-Cartel groups working on them. For each show, A+ “had to be given”, and hence was given to the Cartel group subbing the respective show. The bias here is that the Cartel claims that “A+ needs to be given”, but are absolutely not consistent with this rule that A+ must be given to shows. They try to defend themselves by saying “we don’t give A+ when there are too many groups subbing a show, and then cite shit like NGNL. But the truth of the matter is there are plenty of shows which are subbed one one – three groups, all of which are non-Cartel, where A+ hasn’t been given out. This brings me to

“non-Cartel”
Any group which does NOT receive preferential treatment by the Nyaa mods. These groups can still have staff who work for Cartel groups — and in rare occasions Nyaa mods. This includes any group that doesn’t receive A+ for a show when they are the only group working on it, or when there are multiple non-Cartel groups subbbing a show but the mods have still not given out an A+. Examples this season would be: Barakamon (A-K is the only groups subbing this, I don’t give a fuck what UW’s editor says), Majimoji Rurumo, Mahouka, Hentai!, Ai Mai Mi, PriPara, Persona 4, Gundan-san. You can also look at previous seasons for more examples. These shows are all subbed by one more more non-Cartel groups, none of which received A+, despite “A+ having to be given out”. On the contrary, any time a Cartel group is the only group subbing a show, A+ is given to them automatically.

It gets trickier categorizing groups when you want to place them in “Syndicate”, “making inroads into the Cartel,” and “the Others.”

“Syndicate”
Any group that is both a victim of hate crimes (Nyaa mods bias) and gets discriminated by Nyaa mods. Here I am using racism as an analogy, as majority of this Cartel vs Syndicate argument is based on colour. What’s more, one must also be an activist — a revolutionist, if you will — to be considered part of the Syndicate. Chihiro I would no doubt draw comparisons to Nelson Mandela: Chihiro is clearly the leader of the Syndicate movement; they paint themselves as a peaceful protestor who are simply fighting for equality and to end their mistreatment. However, in reality they are quite the opposite. These people are mostly violent revolutionists (Chihiro trying to bring down Nyaa), separatists (Doki and Coalgirls using their own trackers), or propaganda tools used against Nyaa (ie, CMS is used as a poster boy for Nyaa mods bias)

“making inroads into the Cartel”
This is any group that isn’t always a victim of Nyaa mod bias. Anime-Koi is a good example, as they tend to receive more A+s than any other non-Cartel group. Quite often when they are the only group subbing a show, they automatically receive A+ (Sabagebu, for instance). For a group to be considered making inroads into the Cartel, they must be actively working to join the cartel, receive A+s on Nyaa, and disassociated with the Syndicate.

“the Others”
Basically just any group that doesn’t get too involved in this shit.

Groups get A+ if they’re the best group subbing a show and meet a certain minimum standard of quality (mostly TL-wise). If you notice certain groups getting A+ more often than other groups, it’s probably because those groups have more competent staff and don’t do things like turn out original translations that are worse than the simulcast script (eg Barakamon, Rurumo, and the likes).

If you think you can prove that an A+ was given out incorrectly, feel free to send actual examples of why you feel a different group had the better script (again, preferably in terms of TL). Oddly enough, no one has ever done this.

“TL” is commonly called upon as a reason for A+ for exactly that reason – there are very few people competent enough in Japanese to debate it. This includes most of the nyaa mods – there is only one that I really can respect in terms of translations.

Most translations nowadays are CR based, so there aren’t much differences in terms of TL. However, when there are it is usually the equivalent to Jaka (C->E TL who has good English abilities) TLCing Kokizzzle (who currently is good enough to TL for CR).

And to continue, most TL differences pointed out aren’t really TL differences – just tonality. For instance, if a mom says “Get out of here!” and it is TLed as “Go to your room!”, it would commonly be listed as a TL mistake (assuming a non-cartel group did it), even though it has the same meanings.

By eliminating most debate by excluding most people competent to critique other parts of the release (editing, typesetting, encode), you essentially eliminate any debate on it, even if it seems obvious to the public that the release that is A+ is not the best.

Though it’s not like A+ on nyaa has ever been a level playing field. It’s the type of a playing field where a 4-pixel black border Gochuumon Usagi in 720p gets A+, and a 1-pixel greyish border in 1080p is denied it due to “borders”.

How hard is it for you to understand that TL accuracy IS the most important aspect of any release?
Bad translation with good English is like a pile of shit with a cherry on top of it. In the end, both are just shit.

Xyther, you know you’re much more of an insufferable faggot than Kristen. I don’t think I know of anyone who is as serious as you are; it’s like you’ve got a stick up your ass 24/7. I know half of the people on here didn’t realize those posts were sarcastic, but the fact that you actually wrote a long-winded, serious post in response just shows how much of a tool you are.

Moreover, you pretend like you’re not invested in this and that you’re above all the drama, when in fact you’re the primary reason most of this drama exists in the first place. You make all these spineless, passive aggressive posts on Crymore and ask.fm, instigating drama. And when the drama unfolds you act as if you’re innocent and don’t want a part of it. It’s truly pathetic.

And while my post was largely sarcastic, you’re beyond delusional if you don’t think there is some sort of bias on Nyaa. The whole “A+ is based on a certain TL quality” excuse is what you use when a non-Cartel group doesn’t get A+. That doesn’t account for the fact that CGi didn’t get A+ for Usagi (yeah, Kristen — like an idiot — got rid of the kfx, but as you said, kfx barely plays a part when a release is considered for A+ status) despite being a better encoded BD release. There are countless other examples that I could bring up, but you’d no doubt come up with some shitty excuse.

This is exactly the type of passive aggressive post I’m talking about. You’re so spineless you resort to speaking in the third person — but you’re just being silly now, right, perhaps trying to show me that you’re not as serious as I think you are.

So what was the problem again? Am I taking your stupid arguments too seriously, or am I not taking them seriously enough? It might help if you were to include some kind of indicator in your post as to whether you’re simply pretending to be retarded or the genuine article, because I’m having a hard time telling them apart.

I clearly said my posts were sarcastic to start some fansub drama. And I also said YOU’RE too serious — as in your personality. My other gripe with you is how you are passive aggressive, spineless, and always pretending to be above fansub drama, despite being in the thick of it 90% of the time. Plus, like most fansubbers, you’re an absolute attention whore, but that’s a whole other story.

Man, when did this get so personal? If you think I’m a gigantic asshole, then okay. Like I said, I don’t really care what some faceless internet stranger thinks of me.

If you feel an A+ was given out incorrectly for a show, feel free to submit evidence as to why the decision was wrong. If you have no evidence, are you just assuming or what? Why should we take accusations of wrongdoing seriously if they’re from someone who did even less research than we did?

Trends are not evidence of anything, by the way. As I said, if certain groups get A+ more often than others, it seems to me that the logical conclusion is that those groups are better at fansubbing overall. In which case, I would say the system is working as intended.

Because you are not only the most insufferable person on this website (despite Kristen being an active poster here), but also the most insufferable fansubber — yes, even more so than losers like herkz.

In any system where there is a “best”, there are always exceptions to the rules.

Let’s look at various competitions.

Michael Phelps was considered the best swimmer in the 2012 Olympics. He got silver in 2 events.

The New York Yankees were considered the best baseball team in the late 1990s. They lost in 1997.

The Dallas Cowboys were considered the best football team in the 90s. They lost in 1994.

Let’s look outside of sports.

Apple continually releases the best versions of phones, tablets, and mp3 players. Though most people will claim a windows PC to be better than a Mac

George Lucas, creator of Star Wars, also created the critically trashed Star Wars Christmas Special

Pepsi made “Crystal Pepsi” in the ’80s, a giant bust

The list can go on and on. However, in nyaa, I can’t really find a single instance of a non-cartel group getting A+ and a cartel group not. Even if you want to pretend that cartel groups are generally better quality, there should always be exceptions where the cartel had their B-team on the project, and the non-cartel had their A-team on it.

Though I do know of one other example where something is consistently better than everything else. Kim-Jung Il.

The problem is that what you want is impossible because your “theory” is designed so nobody can disprove it. Two seasons ago, nobody would have considered Kaylith a cartel group. Two years ago, nobody would have considered FFF a cartel group.

It’s impossible to hand out more A+s to non-cartel groups, because as soon as said groups start receiving them, they become cartel groups in your eyes.

It’s kind of pointless to argue this if you claim that any group that receives A+ is inducted into the “cartel”, like Kaylith. We gave Kaylith A+ because it’s the best release, not because they were admitted to the cartel.

You have the hen and the egg all backwards.

What this actually boils down to is that you’re upset that you, personally, aren’t getting A+, and that the groups you represent rarely get A+.

In which case, yes, it’s a matter of quality. Look at Dark_Sage’s reviews of Sailor Moon. Do you expect to get A+ for releases like that?

I can’t speak for BD releases, but Doki, Hatsuyuki and other groups like that will never get a single A+ release unless they learn how to produce subtitles of adequate quality.

Chihiro got A+ for Mangaka and DDY got A+ for Brynhildr, in both cases because the release genuinely deserved it.

The groups you represent release a lot less than “cartel” groups and generally of much lower quality, but saying you’ve never gotten blue is evidently false.

Xythar, Kaylith has 2 staff members in nyaa. It’s hard to NOT consider them cartel. For FFF, it’s more about them getting changing their attitudes more than their A+. Their original version of Nisekoi before they v2’d it was what really solidified it for me, how they localized everything up the ass.
The other thing is that the groups I mentioned as being friendly with cartel groups, not as being cartel groups themselves.

fnord – Few disjointed things I want to address.

1. I’m not really upset that I or the groups I represent don’t get A+. I hardly ever personally submit anything to nyaa. Should some shows from CGi get A+? Yes, definitely. I still don’t know why Hunter x Hunter isn’t A+, and 3 months into BDs CGi is still the best group and better than Vivid’s TV for Usagi. But as for actually being upset, it’s not really upset since if you don’t try you can’t win.

2. DS’s review of Sailor Moon upset both me and my opinions on the group. After making sure that the editors were doing their job on the first 2 episodes and getting it out, I put trust in the staff to continue to do their jobs. Yet the editor obviously got lazy and didn’t care, and it’s to the point now where I’m considering dropping the show. The goal was to put out an acceptable SMC that wasn’t localized up the ass like Commie’s would be, and we obviously failed. I might even retire from Chihiro as a result of this.

3. Mangaka I believe was a counter-example created specifically for these types of arguments. It was flagged because it was an acceptable release with no cartel groups doing it, designed to say “Hey Kristen, we’re not so biased, we even gave Chihiro A+!” But no, I’m not saying that all A+’s are undeserved. I’m saying that I think there is a tilt.

If DS hadn’t reviewed SMC, you’d never have realized how bad your release was. You’d have stood here and proudly proclaimed it superior to Commie’s effort.

How many shows do you personally think were decent and deserving of A+ when in truth the scripts were incredibly bad? How many scripts do you fancy were good when really they definitely weren’t, just because nobody put out a public review to explain to you just how bad the release was?

I can’t address every one of your suspicions and fears because I’m not involved in every decision made, and I know especially little about the cutesy and ecchi shows that Chihiro is mostly doing, but to me, personally, your theories seem like confirmation bias.

I admit this is not particularly concrete evidence of the absence of a conspiracy, but you can’t prove the absence of conspiracies. The nature of conspiracy theories means that they’re fundamentally defensible because they rely on the absence of evidence.

My likes and my efforts showed through in everything I did. Hell, episode 1 took me like 15 hours to encode due to figuring out how to do it with the multiple sources of niconico and CR, and the karaoke took like another 6. The rest of the group I can’t speak about.

Stop categorizing groups like this. It’s erroneous in the first place and allows the rest of the discussion to occur under false pretenses.

I took a few years off Rizon before coming back a few months ago, but Chihiro was shit back in 2008, and I’m afraid it doesn’t look like anything’s changed. And that is truly, honestly a shame. I hadn’t even heard of the “cartel” until this summer. Hell, I don’t even like Sailor Moon–it’s just a stupid kids’ show. But I think you’re too caught up in fighting your holy war to realize that you’re the problem, not the system. This isn’t something out of Orwell.

Egos should have been tempered by the ascent of Crunchyroll years ago. At this point, fansubbing has almost zero utility, save for the otaku and a few outliers who know where to look for better quality work and are willing to wait for it. You should be doing it for fun, not for recognition or status in a community largely filled with trolls. Praise from a third party is always nice, I won’t deny that, but the buck should stop with your own opinion of what you do.

It’s also hard to take you seriously when you say things like this:

>Kristen: 20 years from now, I guess I’d be a teacher, living together with my girlfriend, whoever that may be, petitioning the government to let lesbian marriage be legal.
(tl note: Your name is Steve. Live with it.)
(tl note note: I didn’t know you were a dude back in 2008, and that has nothing to do with my opinion of your work.)

Nobody classified Kaylith under the same umbrella as your perceived “nemeses” when Nyaa first gave them blue for Terror. Why should anything change now that some staff have decided to join other groups? Talented people like to work with other talented people. There’s nothing more to it.

Moreover, in all these years, how has your work not managed to improve? At this point, I’m left to assume that your juvenile mindset bleeds into the quality of what you release. If you’re not going to do this for yourself, then maybe you need another hobby.

Jing, I don’t know who you are, but if you find anything Chihiro does similar to Chihiro in 2008, you are no judge of quality and should just shut up. And I don’t think anyone of any competence can even attempt to make the argument that Chihiro’s To Love Ru was higher or similar quality to let’s say TWGOK S3.

The feebility of your argument is only augmented by bringing personal issues into the equation instead of plain facts. In fact, did you even have any facts in your comment at all?

Then who do you trust? bakabt? They’ve made numerous Chihiro releases A+ since 2008. Nyaa? I’m pretty sure if we put out something like we did in 2008, we’d lose our trusted status due to TL quality. anidb? anidb has an upwards trend in approval. MAL? Again, upwards trend. Those who deny this site, which is the only place that has neutral reviews (seeing how all groups both get praised and bashed), are those who simply wish to deny the truth. That’s all there is to it.

I honestly have no idea who you are. Probably somebody I horribly offended one time, seeing how eager you are to bring personal matters into any time you want to argue with me. But seriously, isn’t it about time you let it go?

You’ve done absolutely nothing to offend me. We’ve never even spoken before. And nothing I’ve said so far today should have offended you, either. Don’t think so highly of yourself as to automatically assume this is a personal matter. You just fascinate me as a human being.

To me, there is no objective gauge of quality out there. I just compare what you do to what I see from others and form my own opinion. I’m even surprised that you’d cite the ratings of random leechers after I already told you I don’t necessarily trust scores from a guy with an established following. Still, that’s not the topic I was concerned with.

In fact, I’ve got plenty of Coalgirls releases archived. There’s nothing particularly wrong with some of them other than a bit of bloat, and that’s a negligible concern.

All I’ve said so far basically boils down to curiosity. Why do you care so much about all these ratings and rankings? The only thing it’s done is devolve your persona into a joke. A meme, even. Maybe if you stopped complaining so much, no one would try to poke the bear. Think back to elementary school: Just ignore the bully, and he’ll go away.

@D_S: Nah, I just mean the whole concept of reviewing fansubs is flawed to begin with. I’m not suggesting you’re always wrong, but no one can always be right–especially when we’ve gotten to the point where most negative marks one might attribute to a release are solely a matter of preference. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that certain people are genuinely bad at what they do while others aren’t. The actual problem arises when readers (or subbers themselves, in this case) treat an outside opinion like gospel.

Frankly, if you believe you’re good enough to judge everyone else’s work, I’d prefer to see you subbing things yourself instead of dedicating that time to reviews. This little world of ours still needs as many talented people as it can get. As for whether you really are that good or not, maybe I’ll write you a review. ;)

So your problem is with reviews in general? I can’t do much about that, but fair enough.

Let me know when fansubs become relevant again and I’ll consider getting back into the fray. Until then you’ll just have to review something I “recently” did like SFWhine’s Last Exile S2 or Whine-Subs’s Hyobu Kyosuke.

>where most negative marks one might attribute to a release are solely a matter of preference.

Grammar mistakes (which is mostly what D_S points out outside of engrish) aren’t a matter of preference, it’s a matter of being wrong or right.
All D_S does is put the things on the table and tells you how it is, aside from really bad releases (or maybe not, you can watch whatever), you should probably just look at what each group does differently and then pick from there, if grammar mistakes really bother you that much and you can pick them up without your brain fixing them as you read then you should follow what he says otherwise just use what he gives you as a guide.
I highly doubt D_S considers himself as someone who says what is or isn’t of good quality (I dobut any review thinks like that really), but like he said, he always tries to improve, you can disagree with him but there are some things that are just wrong, he’s not reviewing anime here.
But feel free to think that just because D_S gave a D to a group and A to another that they’re exactly the same.

@PP: I never said that “just because D_S gave a D to a group and A to another that they’re exactly the same”. That’s not at all what I’m implying, either. The focus of that comment–what I made sure to describe as “the actual problem”–is on the people who take those scores too seriously or interpret them as fact. D_S’s reply was very civil and I’m sure he doesn’t need you to defend his honor in what is quite literally his own domain.

If grammar is honestly all you care about, then you’ve only furthered my point. If it’s not something you notice on your own, then how does it hurt your viewing experience? If it is, then it would follow that you’re of sound enough mind to choose an alternative on your own as opposed to using “guides” that focus almost exclusively on errors.

(Ironically, I may also have misinterpreted your comment, because your grammar could use some work. >_>)

Perhaps the rigidity of grammar rules in a particular release was forsaken in lieu of characterization, for example. You’ll never know, because you looked at a letter grade and decided to go another way. That’s no way to interpret the quality of that release. I consider that unfair, but I’m not condemning D_S for it. It’s not his responsibility to hold anyone’s hand, and I’m not here to burn his house down. I’m speaking in a more general sense, as D_S noticed, than just one man’s contribution to the internet. I simply think it’s an idea worth pursuing, if only for the sake of discussion. This is how we learn.

@D_S: Just joshing, of course. But your reply does beg the question: If you don’t believe fansubbing is relevant (trust me, I don’t either), how do you consider this site and its content, which is primarily subservient to fansubs by design, to be any more practical a use of your time? Surely it must cater to an even smaller audience than fansubs themselves do, or is that where I’m mistaken?

None of this is personal, of course, and I think you realize that. I’m just a bit too curious for my own good.

Crymore doesn’t revolve around fansubs, though. Let me put it this way: if fansubs disappeared overnight, would I have to shut Crymore down? I mean, it’d be an abrupt transition, but it wouldn’t be too hard for me to shift to another otaku-related topic; I ain’t exactly short of opinions. Honestly, the site’d probably become more popular, due to easier accessibility and increased content (fansub reviews take much longer to write and far more preparation than your standard article).

Also, the audience isn’t limited to fansub viewers at all. Some of the most consistent feedback I get is that people primarily come here to be entertained or informed (for example, from an English perspective). Fansub reviews are just a medium for that.

>Perhaps the rigidity of grammar rules in a particular release was forsaken in lieu of characterization, for example

Yeah, you’re right. I’m sure Hadena was actually an A+ group, but D_S never took the characterization they were trying to achieve into account when doing his reviews. In reality, Hadena’s releases were just as good as any other group’s, but they said, “you know what? Why do we have to follow grammatical rules? Who says we have to abide by what others perceive as “correct” grammar?” Truly, Hadena were innovators and the world was not ready for the enlightenment that they wished to bring us.

D_S doesn’t strictly review grammar, though. He also looks at logical problems, poor phrasing, terminology etc. I suppose that anything he points out here as being detrimental to the release can easily be explained away as subjective or a matter of preference, of course, because there’s no “correct” way. There is a “mainstream” way, but the truly best fansubbers out there know that the popular way isn’t necessarily the best. Subs that make sense are so impersonal and sterile. When I am in the midst of fapping to my hentai, trying to discern the hardsubs from the low-quality encode because Subdesu was the only group that released it, I feel as if I have been blessed by the touch of a fansubbing adonis when I spot words that make no sense in the context in which they are spoken, or when a phrase is incomprehensible due to being a string of unrelated words not connected by any of the prescribed English grammatical conventions.

What we perceive and “good” and “bad” is subjective of course, so rather than giving grades and providing criticism, D_S’s reviews should focus more on how the group has chosen to interpret the show’s script. Instead of telling us about the prescribed grammatical rules that a group has broken, he should tell us how they have chosen to neglect the constraints of rules which no longer adequately reflect modern perceptions of what the English language should be, and they should be praised for not following the norm and striving to differentiate themselves from the herd. Instead of pointing out ambiguities or logical fallacies of a script, it would be best for him to question why the subbers have chosen to make things so, and upon rumination, he would find that such subs are a statement from fansubbers, telling the audience that Japanese anime can never be completely and coherently translated into what we perceive as “English”. So limited is the language that the only “accurate” subs must have glaring ambiguities in order to represent the gaping distance between our Western language and ideals and the language and culture of Japan.

We must, indeed, even question why we feel the need for subs at all. Why should we Westerners attempt to impress our language upon the anime of another country? Anime was not intended to be grasped by us, and by attempting to take it and control what it seeks to represent, we are in effect trying to control and subjugate the people of Japan who have made it. Anime fansubs, especially those that try to uphold the rules of “English grammar” and precise English speech, are a form of Orientalism.

That was a bit tl;dr for me, but I didn’t declare any of this to be Truth. I’m merely playing some devil’s advocate because I’m curious to see what people think. And I didn’t say D_S solely reviews grammar–that was just a response to PP’s statement. Thanks for keeping it classy.

– Kristen and a couple others who actually believe in the whole cartel thing

– Groups who want nothing to do with “fansub drama” (Chinese cartoon subtitles are fuckin’ serious business, yo) that actually do a solid job in their releases and never troll but get dragged into it anyways for not hating on Nyaa mods / not hating groups that SOMETIMES have troll releases but usually do a pretty good job

– Some of the “Cartel” groups and other people who don’t actually care about any of it or believe in any of it but pretend to anyways and get involved / poke fun at it because it’s funny and entertaining to watch the resulting anti-cartel shitstorm

It just refers to groups who have members involved in running nyaa, and who therefore also determine nyaa’s ratings for various groups’ releases. The suggestion of the term ‘cartel’ is that there is a conflict of interest, and that it’s the same as having schoolkids mark their own homework.

Given the amount of graft and back-scratching I see in the public sector by career professionals, it’s hard to believe there’d be none in a legally-questionable internet organization run by random /a/-browsing chucklefucks in their late teens and twenties.

Well, I definitely laughed. Honestly, I usually say “non-cartel” instead of trying to group us all together because we usually don’t have relations to each other. For instance, Chihiro and Hatsuyuki really have nothing to do with each other (I haven’t even talked to their leader), and I don’t think we’ve even shared a staff member since Kanade passed away.

I’m starting to wonder if people are delusional enough to actually believe in this cartel shit. There’s only so much one does for the sake of drama(or trolling), and this farce seems to have gone beyond that. :\

1. Donations for support. These are usually about $20-$40 a month, depending on the site size. Chihiro needs about $200 since we didn’t have open donations for over a year – which was a bad move since the group lost popularity and can’t really support itself anymore.

2. Personal donations. I have no problem with a group taking donations for personal matters if it is explicitly stated. I remember Soi saying “I need money to pay for college” on the Chihiro website years ago, and that’s fine because the usage wasn’t hidden.

3. Donations that are used for unneeded resources. These are things like Xeon processor encoding boxes that happen to be a server, or BDMVs of shows that look like they’re going to be released a month late.

4. Donations that are stated to support the group, and are actually going to a person’s pockets.

I know that at least 2 years ago, most of the cartel donations were going to their pockets – such was told to me by a staff member there – and some was going to unneeded resources.

“one person at one group told me that donations were being pocketed 2 years ago” -> “these five groups, two of which have never accepted donations and two of which aren’t currently accepting donations, are all pocketing donations”

So can Vivid be exempted from your “cartel” because we have no ads, no donations, and neither I nor unanimated have ever accepted a single cent for fansubbing?

It’s perfectly logical if you ask me. By posting retarded conspiracy theories on the internet about the “cartel”, you increase sympathy for and drive downloaders towards those groups (for example, if Chihiro picks up a show, you can bet HorribleSubs’s download numbers are going to increase, because who would download Chihiro over HorribleSubs?)

Vile and nefarious? According to Kristen it’s not even a problem if one states what the money is being used for, so I guess there’s no issue after all. Not to rain on your parade, though; I bet you couldn’t wait to revive this week-old discussion the moment that post went up.

I agree, actually. I think that if people are honest about where the donations are going, it shouldn’t be a problem. If people know what they’re paying for, and are still happy to contribute, that’s fine.

You were the one directing thinly veiled criticism at lesser groups for asking for donations for personal matters, so it’s funny that one of your own has come along and done the same.

Next season, we need to assemble a team of the Syndicate’s best and a team of the Cartel’s best, we’ll pick a show, and they will compete one-on-one in subbing it. D_S will determine whose release is the best, and they will get A+ status on Nyaa.

Both need to be original translations as that is always a standard for A+. Of course there will need to be a TL review here as well. Both should also use the same source so that the encode quality can be examined as well.

Kristen cares so much about SMC that he made sure, as project leader, that his folks were doing their job, submitting their work on time, and generally producing good quality work.
I mean, hell. They generally release fairly quickly after the official subs.

I’ll watch the first few eps of Trigger’s anime because I’m an Imaishifag, but I’m not keeping expectations high for this adaptation. Until they have several shows under the belt and an experienced team, I don’t think Imaishi and Yoshinari will do anything incredible (so long as it’s TV-related, since LWA is pretty stelar).

Actually they’re a lot of sequels, but at least they’re sequels to enjoyable shows : ) It’s been a long time since I watched two (let’s not even talk about three) animes at the same time.

Didn’t check staff, but if you say so. Then again, I think Imaishi and other “top” members would have a hand in everything that’s related to the studio they created, even more so during their first TV shows.

CR can do speed because they get the episode before it even airs (I’m assuming by at least a week.)
For reference, Eveyuu had access to a leaked Chinese-subbed raw to No Game No Life just like 8 hours or less before it actually aired. They got a barebones v0 out of it out about an hour and a half before HorribleSubs got it out (I’m assuming CR is usually ripped within give or take 10-20 of it being released. someone correct me if I’m wrong.) That’s just like 8 hours before air. Imagine what you could do if you got it a week or two.